Barry Humphries - IMDb IMDb Actor | Writer | Soundtrack His father was an affluent construction manager. Barry was a very intelligent boy who attended Melbourne University. There, he began in revues and doing some impersonations. He moved to London around 1960 and began his TV career. He has created numerous characters, including Dame Edna Everidge and Sir Les Patterson. See full bio » Born: a list of 41 people created 26 Jul 2013 a list of 34 people created 19 Nov 2014 a list of 86 people created 22 Feb 2015 a list of 30 people created 15 Sep 2015 a list of 26 images created 11 months ago Do you have a demo reel? Add it to your IMDbPage How much of Barry Humphries's work have you seen? User Polls 5 wins & 5 nominations. See more awards » Known For 2014 The Kangaroo Gang (TV Series) Narrator - Episode #3.7 (2008) ...

Dame Edna Everage (as Dame Edna Everage) 1978-2007 Parkinson (TV Series) 1990 Single Voices (TV Series) Sandy Stone 1982 Omnibus (TV Series documentary) Sir Les Patterson 1990 A Night on Mount Edna (TV Movie) (uncredited) 1990 Single Voices (TV Series) (1 episode) 1966 The Late Show (TV Series) Hide 1984 Another Audience with Dame Edna Everage (TV Movie) (lyrics: "Shyness") / (music: "Shyness") / (performer: "Shyness") 1981 Shock Treatment (performer: "Little Black Dress", "Shock Treatment") 1978 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (performer: "Sgt.

Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (Finale)) 1972 The Adventures of Barry McKenzie (lyrics: "My One-eyed Trouser Snake", "Old Pacific Sea", "The Adventures of Barry McKenzie") Hide 1984 Another Audience with Dame Edna Everage (TV Movie) (composer: song "I'm Shy") 1981 Flamingo Park (Short) (music - as Dame Edna Everage) Hide 2003 Concert for George (Video documentary) (camera rigger) Hide 1993 Edna Time (TV Series) (executive producer - 1993) Hide 2011 Eddie Perfect: Misanthropology (Video) (thanks) 2007 'Little Britain' Down Under (TV Movie documentary) (thank you - as Dame Edna Everage) 2005 Great Performances (TV Series) (special thanks - 1 episode) 2015 Stop Laughing...

This Is Serious (TV Series documentary) Himself 2015 The Talk (TV Series) Himself 2013 American Masters (TV Series documentary) Herself 2012 Raising the Curtain (TV Series documentary) Himself - Interviewee 2012 Q&A (TV Series) Himself - Panelist 2011 Piers Morgan Tonight (TV Series) Himself 2010 The Review Show (TV Series) Himself - Cultural Highlights Interviewee 2009 Rove Live (TV Series) Himself 2008 I'd Do Anything (TV Series) Himself - Judge 2007 100 Greatest Stand-Ups (TV Special documentary) Himself (as Dame Edna Everage and Les Patterson) 2005 Celebrate 'Oliver!' (TV Movie) Himself 2005 The Unseen Spike Milligan (TV Movie documentary) Himself 2005 Barry Humphries on Bedazzled (Video documentary short) Himself 2004 Live!

with Kelly (TV Series) Himself 2003 Micallef Tonight (TV Series) Himself 1992-1996 Pebble Mill (TV Series) Himself 1995 The Celluloid Heroes (TV Movie) Himself 1976-1995 Omnibus (TV Series documentary) Himself 1989 The South Bank Show (TV Series documentary) Himself 1987 The Last Resort (TV Series) Himself 1986 The Story of English (TV Mini-Series documentary) Himself 1983 Breakfast Time (TV Series) Himself 1983 Time with Betjeman (TV Series documentary) Himself 1981 The Rocky Horror Treatment (TV Movie documentary) Himself (uncredited) 1979 Christmas Snowtime Special (TV Movie) Herself - Presenter (as Dame Edna Everage) 1965 The Australian Londoners (TV Movie documentary) Himself 1964 Monitor (TV Series documentary) Himself 2013 Greatest Stand Up Comedians (TV Movie documentary) Herself - 19th Place (as Dame Edna Everage) 2012 The Unforgettable Russell

 Harty (TV Movie documentary) Herself - Interviewee on The Russell Harty Show (as Dame Edna Everage) 2012 7.30 (TV Series) 2004 Arena (TV Series documentary) Himself 1991 Memories of 1970-1991 (TV Series documentary) Himself TV commercial (voiceover as Dame Edna Everage) for Tesco supermarkets (2004) See more » Publicity Listings: 2 Interviews | 7 Articles | 1 Magazine Cover Photo | See more » Official Sites: Official Site for Dame Edna Everage (Barry Humphries) Alternate Names: Dame Edna | Dame Edna Everage | Edna Everage | Sir Les Patterson/Dame Edna Everage | Dame Edna Everidge | Dame Edna Everage and Les Patterson | Les Patterson | Sir Les Patterson Height: Barry "Dame Edna" Humphries | Biography and Filmography | 1934 Barry "Dame Edna" Humphries Actor, Comedian, Painter At one time hailed as the strongest proponent of Dada in Australia, the multi-talented Barry Humphries has excelled as a character actor in Europe

 and Australia and has become one of the best loved landscape painters ...

Read more » Born: 02/17/1934 in Australia I'd Do Anything 2007 - 2008 (TV Show) Actor Swarovski Style Rocks 2007 - 2008 (TV Show) Actor Da Kath & Kim Code 2005 - 2006 (TV Show) Actor Ally McBeal 2001 - 2002 (Tv Show) Actor Dame Edna 2000 - 2001 (TV Show) Actor The 55th Annual Tony Awards 2000 - 2001 (TV Show) Presenter Dame Edna's Hollywood 1992 - 1993 (TV Show) Actor Edna Time 1992 - 1993 (TV Show) Actor Dame Edna's Hollywood 1991 - 1992 (TV Show) Actor Dame Edna's Hollywood 1991 - 1992 (TV Show) Actor The Story of English 1986 - 1987 (TV Show) Actor Saturday Night Live 1977 (Tv Show

) Actor Biography At one time hailed as the strongest proponent of Dada in Australia, the multi-talented Barry Humphries has excelled as a character actor in Europe and Australia and has become one of the best loved landscape painters Down Under, but his fame rests on the Melbourne housewife he first created in connection with the Olympic Games back in 1956.

Since then, Dame Edith Everage has commandeered the actor's life, blooming into an international phenomenon, a wonderful parody of celebrity and self-obsession. He delivered his first Dadaist experiments in anarchy and visual satire against the conservative background of his hometown Melbourne and moved on to the more cosmopolitan Sydney, where he played Estragon in "Waiting for Godot" (1958), the first Australian production of a Samuel Beckett play. A frequent player in London's West End during the 60s, he starred as Fagin in the 1967 revival of Lionel Bart's musical "Oliver!," featuring a young Phil Collins as the Artful Dodger.

Nevertheless, he did not introduce Dame Edna to British audiences until the 1969 one-person stage production "Just a Show," which led to the short-lived BBC series "The Barry Humphries Scandals." Gladys Humphries Mother Humphries has described his relationship with his mother as "uncomfortable" others have characterized her as "aloof" Emily Humphries Contributed humor column to Vanity Fair 2001 Had recurring role of Claire Otoms on the Fox comedy "Ally McBeal" 1999 Appeared for Australian audiences sans Edna regalia in "Remember You're Out", playing different characters 1999 Tackled the Great White Way in "Dame Edna: The Royal Tour" 1998 Brought Dame Edna to the US stage for the first time since 1977, receiving rave notices from the San Francisco press like "a marvel of comic endurance" and "savagely entertaining"; city proclaimed November 26 as "Dame Edna Day" 1998 Performed "Edna, the Spectacle" at London's Theatre Royal Haymarket 1998 Made cameo appearance in Stefan Elliott's "Welcome to Woop

 Woop" 1997 Contributed the voice of Kangaroo to animated "Napoleon" 1996 Portrayed theater director Humphrey Beal in John Duigan's "The Leading Man" 1996 Reteamed with Mora for "Pterodactyl Women from Beverly Hills" 1994 Played Clemens Metternich in Bernard Rose's "Immortal Beloved", starring Gary Oldman as Beethoven 1991 Wrote and appeared in NBC comedy special, "Dame Edna's Hollywood" (followed by 1992 and 1993 NBC specials of the same name); also wrote lyrics for "Dame Edna's Nicenesss Theme" 1991 Portrayed Rupert Murdoch in "Selling Hitler", a five-part British black comedy detailing the great Hitler diaries hoax of 1983 1987 Appeared as Dame Edna in Phillipe Mora's "The Marsupials: The Howling III" 1987 Co-scripted George Miller's "Les Patterson Saves the World", playing both Les Patterson and Dame Edna Everage 1984 Part of the excellent

 cast of "Doctor Fischer of Geneva" (BBC-2), including James Mason, Alan Bates and Cyril Cusack, among others; aired on PBS the following year 1982 Awarded the Order of Australia 1979 Won the Society of West End Theatres Award for his "A Night With Dame Edna" 1977 Brought Dame Edna to New York for the unmitigated disaster of "Housewife/Superstar" 1977 Last film (to date) with Beresford, "The Getting of Wisdom", playing Reverend Strachey 1975 Acted in third film with Beresford, "Side By Side" 1974 Reprised Dame Edna in Beresford's "Barry McKenzie Holds His Own", again co-scripting with the director; also appeared as three additional characters 1972 Teamed with director Bruce Beresford to write screenplay for "The Adventures of Barry McKenzie", introducing the beer-swilling, Australian lout to screen audiences; played three charactes including the very proper Aunt Edna to Barry Crocker's McKenzie 1968 Introduced Mrs.

Everage to the British stage in his one-person "Just a Show", which led to a short-lived BBC series, "The Barry Humphries Scandals" 1967 Starred as Fagin in the Piccadilly Theatre's revival of Lional Bart's musical "Oliver!" with Phil Collins as the Artful Dodger 1967 Acted in Stanley Donen's "Bedazzled", starring the team of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore 1959 Sailed for Venice, Italy 1958 Created the character of Sandy Stone, a kind of eustralian Beckett figure, as a scathing satire of suburban boredom 1956 Created the character of Mrs.

Everage, a Melbourne housewife who would evolve into the celebrated Dame Edna, for a sketch in connection with Melbourne's Olympic Games Appeared in numerous West End (London) theatrical productions during the 1960s Joined Sydney's Philip Street Theatre, where he appeared as Estragon in "Waiting for Godot", the first Australian production of a Samuel Beckett play Created the comic strip character of Barry McKenzie in British satirical magazine Private Eye Had his first Dada exhibition while a university student 1000+ images about Dame Edna... on Pinterest | Search, Comedians and Mac cosmetics Mr. Barry Humphries..Australian icon and great friend of Le Louvre. Thanks for the visit and for toting our Hermès x Le Louvre iconic scarf 1 Dame Edna Everage: The Official Website Let's face it, I have always been a woman on the cutting edge of technology. In the early 80s, I pioneered the first in-purse fax machine (remember fax machines??!!) So if you'd like to be in touch with me, my talented son Kenny, or an authorized representative of Ednacare Switzerland, please join us on Facebook , Twitter , and Instagram !

© 2015 EdnaCare Switzerland PLC/The Barry Humphries Group Dame Edna Everage, Sir Les Patterson , and Barry Humphries are wholly owned subsidiaries of The Barry Humphries Group. For more information, please email office at dame-edna dot com. After 60 Years Of Fabulousness, Dame Edna Embarks On Her Farewell Tour : NPR After 60 Years Of Fabulousness, Dame Edna Embarks On Her Farewell Tour Embed Embed After 60 Years Of Fabulousness, Dame Edna Embarks On Her Farewell Tour After 60 Years Of Fabulousness, Dame Edna Embarks On Her Farewell Tour Embed Embed Heard on Weekend Edition Saturday NPR Staff Dame Edna Everage — a character created by Australian comedian Barry Humphries — models a hat based on the Sydney Opera House. She is currently performing Dame Edna's Glorious Goodbye: The Farewell Tour. Wesley/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Wesley/Getty Images Dame Edna Everage says she's approaching 60 — but from the wrong direction.

The housewife and superstar — a creation of Australian comedian Barry Humphries — has been making audiences laugh, weep, have acid reflux, and ruminate deeply on the human experience for six decades. Now, she's embarked on Dame Edna's Glorious Goodbye: The Farewell Tour, which concludes in Washington, D.C., in April. Dame Edna tells NPR's Scott Simon that she's a "restless sprit" and it's not entirely clear what "retirement" will look like for her. Interview Highlights Dame Edna participates with her fans in a Zumba fitness class at Martin Place in Sydney, Australia, in January 2013. Brendon Thorne/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Brendon Thorne/Getty Images Dame Edna participates with her fans in a Zumba fitness class at Martin Place in Sydney, Australia, in January 2013. Brendon Thorne/Getty Images On this farewell tour really being a farewell tour I'm not like a number of stars that I could mention who announce farewell tours, collect the money, and then come back a year later and expect to do it all over again. I consider that dishonest. It doesn't mean I'll disappear. I might do television things.

... But, on this tour, I really find, not just strange hotels — even though I'm in the luxury penthouse so often — but airports, darling. I mean, going through that whole business. I think your listeners probably think that I just get swept straight through, but it's not the case. And I've never had a private plane, I don't believe in that kind of elitism. But I have to pretty well take all my clothes off. I have to subject myself to pretty ruthless searches — some of them an affront to my modesty, frankly. On how she's kept her looks all these years "I looked at my face about 10 years ago ... and I thought to myself, 'What have I done? A pact with the devil? Why am I looking so young and so unconventionally lovely? Why?'" Dame Edna Everage It's so simple. Now, I looked at my face about 10 years ago ... and I thought to myself, "What have I done? A pact with the devil? Why am I looking so young and so unconventionally lovely? Why?" And, I thought what I need to do is to age myself in some way. I have to look normal.

People won't believe it! So I went to Brazil, and I saw the top man there, of course, a cosmetic surgeon. And I said, "Look, I need to look my age!" Article continues after sponsorship He said, "Well Edna your hair is still a natural, very, very natural mauve." I was born, by the way, Scott, with this color. I was. It's very unusual. Very unusual. ... But, I said to the doctor, "Well what can you do?" And he said, "Well Edna, you must have some little crow's feet! ... We'll give you some crow's feet." And he said, "What you need – your neckline is perfect! You haven't got that horrible turkey neck." He said, "You need a little soft, double chin. A soft little pillow, a little cushion under your chin." ... Not My Job: Dame Edna Everage Gets Quizzed On Farewell Tours And do you know what he did? I saw him delving in a sort of white box, a freezer. And he pulled out a little shrink-wrapped package. It looked like a chicken breast. And he said, "We'll stitch this on.

And it will settle in. And it will give you a lovely double chin." And I said, "What is that?" He said, "What? More like what was it, Edna ... That was Elizabeth Taylor's left love handle." Elizabeth Taylor's love handle is now my soft, little chin. And if you look at it very closely, you can see some indentations where Richard Burton's fingers held. ... Isn't it beautiful? It's history in my face. History. Dame Edna Everage creator Barry Humphries reinvented both comedy and TV chat shows | Daily Mail Online comments Chat show king Michael Parkinson summed her up best: ‘A megastar of showbusiness, a confidante of monarchs and captains of industry, she’s the intimate of politicians and decision-makers, she’s the babe from the bush who became the international dowager of style.’ Hard to believe, then, that Dame Edna Everage was conceived as the most boring suburban housewife possible, or that she’s stepping out of the spotlight for ever.

Barry Humphries, the 78-year-old from Melbourne, Australia, who has played the much-loved character Dame Edna since 1955, announced over the weekend that he was ‘beginning to feel a bit senior’, and that he didn’t want to people to say: ‘You should have seen him when he was funny.’ Florid mark: Barry Humphries has played the much-loved character Dame Edna since 1955 - creating a comic institution So he’s decided to put the Dame and her spectacular frocks into mothballs, along with another of his acclaimed characters, the drunken, boorish cultural attache (and celebrity chef) Sir Les Patterson. RELATED ARTICLES Share this article Share The announcement means the end of a comic institution who left a florid mark on television with her catchphrase ‘Hello possums!’ and her trademark gladioli flowers. Her ITV talk show, The Dame Edna Experience, ran for just 14 episodes at the end of the Eighties, but it redefined chat programmes. Before her arrival on television, A-list celebrities were treated with deference.

Hosts such as Parkinson, Michael Aspel and Terry Wogan played the straight man, feeding guests respectful questions that elicited thoughtful or witty responses. Hats off to you: Dame Edna's creator Barry Humphries, seen here after being made a CBE for services to entertainment, said he was 'beginning to feel a little bit senior' and wants to move on to do other things Edna was not respectful. She was rude, mocking, brash, condescending, sneering and snobbish. Any celebrity who expected light banter and a plug for the latest book or film was in for a shock. Everyone got a misspelled name-badge, ‘in case your name slips my memory’. Diva Liza Minnelli was ‘Liz’, the late Mastermind host Magnus Magnusson was ‘Maggie’. After that, viewers couldn’t take chat shows seriously again. Edna had created the prototype for today’s irreverent send-ups, presided over by the likes of Jonathan Ross and Graham Norton. But she wasn’t always a ‘gigastar’, as she now describes herself with wry smugness.

In her original incarnation, she was a dowdy frump in a moth-eaten fur jacket, a frayed cardie over a cotton dress, a tatty scarf and lank hair. Dame Edna’s idea of glamour was a kitchen apron decorated with drawings of Tasmania’s venomous spiders. Talk show queen: Dame Edna, pictured interviewing John Mills and Cynthia Payne on the Dame Edna Experience series in 1987, redefined chat shows Bond-ing with the stars: Dame Edna, with 007 legend Sean Connery in 1987, created the prototype for irreverent send-ups She made her first appearance in comedy clubs, as a satire on a certain class of Aussie woman — houseproud, stuck-up, without any knowledge of art or any desire to learn. Women who, Humphries thought, were rather like his own mother, Louisa, the daughter of a Manchester immigrant. He later claimed that one of the formative moments of his childhood, when he realised his parents would never understand his love of painting and reading, came when Louisa gave all his books away to the Salvation Army, ‘because you’ve read them all’.

Humphries was just 21, a university dropout and aspiring artist when he created Edna. She started out as Mrs Norm Everage, average and normal; her father had been ‘a vacuum salesman who once surprised my mother with a crevice nozzle’. She quickly became a TV star in Australia. Audiences loved her mundane chatter about the Moonee Ponds suburb where she lived with her ailing husband, Norm, and the gruesome apparatus for treating his prostate problem. Also sharing the household were her bridesmaid, Madge Allsop, and her children, Kenny, Bruce and Valmai. And yet when Humphries first performed the act in England, it was not a success. Fast and fabulous! Dame Edna hops into a Formula 1 car alongside broadcaster Clive James (left) and racing driver Damon Hill at the 1993 Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide Animal magnetism: The Dame cuddles a koala with the late 'crocodile hunter' Steve Irwin in 2003 Happily, however, he met the comedian Peter Cook, barely out of university but already a major star with his revues, TV shows and Soho club.

The pair became friends, and in 1964 Cook booked him at his Establishment Club. The satire venue, which would later introduce Lenny Bruce to British audiences, as well as relaunching Frankie Howerd’s career, should have been the perfect place for the debut. Edna ‘minced on to the stage in her awful slingbacks and floral polyester frock’, remembered Humphries. ‘There was an uproar at her first banal utterance, and it grew from there.’ Edna would later specialise in uproars, of course, but this was the wrong sort — the audience couldn’t grasp the suburban send-up, and were vocal in their disapproval. In his Spectator theatre column, critic Bamber Gascoigne condemned the act as ‘soporific’ — or ‘syphilitic’, as Dame Edna would sometimes recall it. Richard Ingrams, then editor of Private Eye, recalls seeing Edna’s early British shows. ‘She was completely different in those days, just a shabbily dressed housewife with a big handbag.

When she developed into this Dame, it was an extraordinary transformation, like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly.’ The change came in the mid-Seventies, when Humphries realised that the world wanted Edna to be fab, not drab. A right royal hello: Dame Edna greets The Queen when she was among the stars appearing at a Gala Variety Performance in aid of the Queen's Silver Jubilee Appeal in 1977 Waxing lyrical: Dame Edna poses with a replica of Queen Victoria as she visits Madame Tussauds in London in 1982 The cheap dresses were ditched for lurid designer creations with frills, paired with extravagant butterfly spectacles, and her purple hair was sprayed solid into whirls and billows, like a luminous meringue perched on her head.

Humphries described how she evolved: ‘The change in her personality from a painfully reticent young housewife, barely able to conduct a conversation, to a terrifying monster looming over her theatre audiences like a vulture disguised as a bird of paradise, is a transformation I could never in my most extravagant dreams have imagined.’ By the end of the decade, she was starring in a BBC mockumentary, La Dame Aux Gladiolas. ‘I’ve decided to put my family last,’ she announced. ‘It’ll be best for them in the end.’ But her big breakthrough came in 1980, and An Audience With . . . Asking the questions, and taking the brunt of Edna’s satire, were celebrities including actress Joanna Lumley, broadcaster Melvyn Bragg and the campaigning Labour peer Lord Longford. Longford demanded to know if she wished to see a tougher stance on pornography, and Edna vigorously agreed — porn must be much tougher, she insisted, for she herself had a thing about muscle men. From then on, she was unstoppable. She simply could not be too outrageous. Every chat show clamoured to have her.

Dame Edna, pictured here bringing her own unique style to Dick Whittington at the New Wimbledon Theatre last Christmas, was transformed from 'drab to fab' after her original dowdy housewife character failed to inspire British audiences Her solo stage shows, with titles such as An Evening Of Intercourse and Back With A Vengeance, broke box office records. And there were unmissable televisions shows — A Night On Dame Edna, Dame Edna Kisses It Better and even a season with the U.S. comedy drama, Ally McBeal. In an era when no other TV host would dare venture as far, Dame Edna was talking about her husband’s failing prostate gland and her son’s homosexual friends: ‘My son Kenny and his partner, Clifford — they are people and, who knows, they may get well.’ She talked candidly about all her family. Daughter-in-law Joylene ‘lives in Clapham. She thinks it’s fashionable. It’s a pity for her really. She does try, she makes a pitiful effort to please me. ‘A lot of people think she’s quite attractive.

I just can’t see it, that’s all.’ But her most pungent remarks were reserved for husband Norm. When he died in 1988, she didn’t pretend to grieve. ‘I’ve never been happier since my husband died, and I think most women in my position would say that, if they were honest. But I am in mourning — I’m wearing black underwear under all this.’ Taking centre stage: Barry Humphries' alter ego with courtroom TV star Judge Judy in New York, where she was also hugely popular for her theatre work Ordinary people in the audience were dubbed ‘paups’ or paupers. But she was equally scathing about the world leaders who, she claimed, relied on her homespun advice. When she met the Queen backstage at a Royal Variety performance in 2003, she claimed the monarch said nothing but simply pressed a scrap of paper into her hand, with a single word written on it: ‘Help!’ And when she took a call from U.S. President Ronald Reagan on her show in 1988, she spent the conversation explaining to him who he was, and why it was important that he should remember it. Humphries never thought of himself as a drag artist.

He simply played comic personalities, and the favourite happened to be female. Once he was in character, he refused to admit Edna was really a man, and always referred in the third person to Barry Humphries as Edna’s agent or manager. This mental double-act reached its zenith when he wrote her biography, Handling Edna, published as non-fiction, in 2010. But the man beneath the cyclamen lipstick has a reputation for kindness and a gentle nature. ‘A truly kind man,’ insists Ingrams. ‘I’ve often thought that Barry enjoyed being on the stage because he got real pleasure from making people laugh. Even though he was making fun of them, he really loved working an audience, just deriving pleasure from the sound of their laughter.’ Edna’s own assessment, of course, is typically modest: ‘Am I old-fashioned? I think I might be. I am a lucky woman, because I was born with a priceless gift . . .

the ability to laugh at the misfortunes of others.’ Comedy legend: Mr Humphries with Little Britain stars Matt Lucas and David Walliams in 2005 Lecher: Mr Humphries in his other guise as the farting, obnoxious Sir Les Patterson Dame Edna Everage hangs up her glasses and retires after 6 decades | Daily Mail Online comments Prepare to catch the ‘gladdies’ one last time. Age has finally caught up with Dame Edna Everage – and she is retiring. Barry Humphries, the man behind the glittery glasses, has announced that his character is setting out on her final tour. And the Australian housewife won’t be alone in her retirement as Humphries’s other alter ego, the obnoxious Sir Les Patterson, will be joining her.

Dame Edna, pictured here bringing her own unique style to Dick Whittington at the New Wimbledon Theatre last Christmas, was transformed from 'drab to fab' after her original dowdy housewife character failed to inspire British audiences Hats off to you: Dame Edna's creator Barry Humphries, seen here after being made a CBE for services to entertainment, said he was 'beginning to feel a little bit senior' and wants to move on to do other things ‘I’m feeling a bit senior now and it’s time to move on,’ Humphries, who is 78, said yesterday. The comedian’s upcoming tour will be the last time Dame Edna and Sir Les will be seen on stage, although their creator admitted: ‘Edna will crop up on television, I guess, but not in a live show.’ He said: ‘The fact of the matter is that I’m beginning to feel a bit senior. It’s the best aerobics you could do, leaping around on stage, but it’s gruelling when there are other things to do.’ RELATED ARTICLES Share this article Share Dame Edna was created in the 1950s when Humphries was a young actor touring southern Australia.

Sir Les Patterson burst on to the scene later, cursing and spitting his way through his first stage show in 1974. He was a dramatic contrast to Dame Edna with his nose-picking, belching and flatulence, but was an immediate hit with her fans. Fast and fabulous! Dame Edna hops into a Formula 1 car alongside broadcaster Clive James (left) and racing driver Damon Hill at the 1993 Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide Animal magnetism: The Dame cuddles a koala with the late 'crocodile hunter' Steve Irwin in 2003 Taking centre stage: Barry Humphries' alter ego with courtroom TV star Judge Judy in New York, where she was also hugely popular for her theatre work Talk show queen: Dame Edna, pictured interviewing John Mills and Cynthia Payne on the Dame Edna Experience series in 1987, redefined chat shows By the 1980s, Dame Edna had evolved from a drab housewife from Melbourne’s working class suburb of Moonee Ponds to an international star who hosted her own talk show.

Celebrities including Sean Connery, Chubby Checker, Charlton Heston, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Mel Gibson and Dusty Springfield appeared on The Dame Edna Experience. She became known for her glasses, her lilac curls, her ‘Hello possums!’ greeting and her ‘gladdies’ – the bunch of gladioli that she threw to the audience at the end of her live shows. Humphries’s characters have been such a hit in Britain that he was made a CBE in 2007 for services to entertainment. In the U.S., he won the Tony award for best special theatrical event in 2000 for Dame Edna: The Royal Tour. Bond-ing with the stars: Dame Edna, with 007 legend Sean Connery in 1987, created the prototype for irreverent send-ups Comedy legend: Mr Humphries with Little Britain stars Matt Lucas and David Walliams in 2005 Lecher: Mr Humphries in his other guise as the farting, obnoxious Sir Les Patterson But Humphries told Sydney’s Sunday Telegraph he was retiring the popular couple because there were ‘places I want to go, things I want to do’.

He has also been given a contract to write another book. And although Dame Edna’s upcoming farewell tour only covers Australia at the moment, British fans may also get the chance to say their goodbyes. Humphries said that if the show is a success in Australia, he will take it to London and New York. Entitled Eat Pray Laugh, the show is about a journey, he added. Providing a few clues as to what audiences can expect, he said: ‘Les has become a celebrity chef. We’ll have a kitchen on stage and Les working away, clearly preparing a meal for political colleagues. ‘Edna, of course, will be discussing her spiritual journey. She’s on a journey to find herself, to lose the trappings of mega-stardom and become a real person.’ There will also be an appearance from Humphries’s favourite character, Sandy Stone.

A right royal hello: Dame Edna greets The Queen when she was among the stars appearing at a Gala Variety Performance in aid of the Queen's Silver Jubilee Appeal in 1977 Waxing lyrical: Dame Edna poses with a replica of Queen Victoria as she visits Madame Tussauds in London in 1982 Dame Edna Everage to retire – USATODAY.com Dame Edna Everage to retire By ROD McGUIRK, Associated Press Updated Enlarge Close Sponsored Links CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Dame Edna Everage, the Tony Award-winning drag act known for her purple hair and oversized rhinestone eyeglasses, will soon open her final stage show tour in Australia. It comes 57 years after her debut. Barry Humphries , the actor and satirist who created Australia's self-proclaimed housewife-superstar, wants to take the farewell show "Eat Pray Laugh!" to Britain and New York over the next two years following the two-month Australian tour that begins in Canberra on June 22, his publicist Kerry O'Brien said Tuesday.

At 78, Humphries said the time had come to retire all his various alter egos from the stage, the most famous of whom is Dame Edna. "She's a little weary of touring and strange hotels," Humphries told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio in Canberra, explaining his most enduring character's decision to retire. Another of Humphries' characters, drunken Australian cultural attache Sir Les Patterson, will join Dame Edna on the farewell tour. Dame Edna's career began as the more dour Mrs. Edna Everage when she first stepped onto the stage of a Melbourne University review in 1955 in Humphries' hometown of Melbourne. She was "Auntie Edna" in the 1974 Australian comedy movie "Barry McKenzie Holds His Own," in which she was made a dame — a British title that is the female equivalent of a knighthood — as part of the plot during a cameo appearance by the then-Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam.

Dame Edna was a staple of television and stage in Britain and Australia before Humphries won a Tony Award in 2000 for his Broadway show "Dame Edna, The Royal Tour." Its sequel, "Dame Edna, Back with a Vengeance," was also nominated for a Tony, the leading U.S. theater award, in 2004. Humphries was not available for an interview on Tuesday. The show's producer, Dainty Group, described the show in a tongue-in-cheek statement as an all-singing, all-dancing spectacular in which Dame Edna promises to empower audiences as she meditates on the big issues of gender, ethnicity and climate change. Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. For more information about reprints & permissions , visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com . Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com .

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Question: What is the name of the Australian actor/comedian who created the character Dame Edna Everage?
Answer: BARRY HUMPHRIES